Symposium on Harrison's ?Lean and Mean?: A productivity perspective

Abstract

The underlying thesis of this book is that the conventional wisdom regarding small companies is wrong: large firms and their suppliers generate most of the meaningful new jobs and innovations.1 Furthermore, large companies are more "flexible" than small companies. Flexibility is defined in three ways. Functional flexibility refers to work tasks, redeployment of resources, technology adoptions, and reconfiguration of relationships with suppliers. Wage flexibility involves the ability to adjust wages and benefits (usually, in a downward direction) without too much difficulty. Numerical flexibility relates to outsourcing and the use of contingent workers. Each of these has enabled firms to become "lean and mean," and thus, more competitive in the global marketplace. The author is not satisfied with the efforts large firms have undertaken to improve efficiency. They must become even more flexible or their foreign rivals will consistently outperform them. To reach this goal, they should grow in size and scope, by forming more strategic alliances and developing close, nurturing relationships with a vast network of suppliers. Professor Harrison believes that firms cannot achieve this without assistance from